Page 48 of Saving Graces
She turned the radio right off and started using Savannah like a jukebox, her eyes getting wider and wider as she listened. Her chest started to ache the way it still did around her sometimes, staring at Savannah’s lovely profile, her golden voice filling up the whole world.
Savannah had told her a few days ago, that she’d made out with a girl called Hannah and that they maybe liked each other. Rosalie was trying to be cool with it. She would be cool with it. If the two of them were going to stay friends then maybe Savannah making out with other people would stop that occasional look she got in her eyes that made Rosalie’s breath catch in the middle of a sentence.
The next day she marched over to Travis’s house and banged on the door until his mom sent him out.
“Oh,” he said when he saw her, “hey.” He scratched his head awkwardly and without even having to discuss it, they sat down next to each other on his front porch, the way they had their whole lives.
“Listen,” she said. “I get it now.”
“Yeah?” his soft brown eyes met hers.
“Yeah. I’m sorry I was mad. When you’re ready, I still want to be friends with you though, okay?”
“Okay,” he said. His shoulders dropped and his head fell back with relief. “I thought you fucking hated me.”
“I did, a little,” she admitted.
“What changed?”
She focused on his ratty old sneakers, thinking of the kid who’d stuck by her when she’d puked on herself at recess when they were eight years old.
“I fell for someone too,” she said softly. “And I can’t have them.”
Travis nodded. His throat worked hard as he swallowed, taking that in.
“Well,” he said at last, “poetic justice, I guess.” She glared at him and he grinned his familiar grin. Then he stopped, his voice getting deeper. “If he won’t be with you he’s fucking stupid.”
“No,” she said, quietly, “she’s not.”
His eyes widened.
“Fuck!” he said, “I knew it! It’s Caitlin right?”
“Um, what?” Rosalie wondered if he’d lost his mind.
“I mean, she told me like a year ago that she had a huge crush on you, when we were drunk at Gina’s party after the Super Bowl.”
“Caitlin is like the straightest girl ever,” she said, confused. “She’s with Jake now.”
“Um, she’s definitely not straight,” Travis said. “Not from what she told me. But if not Caitlin then, who?”
Rosalie told him the whole story. When she finished he put his arm around her shoulders.
“Shit,” he said. “I’m so fucking sorry about Rachel. I didn’t know. Like, my mom didn’t… no one told me about any of it. If I’d known I would have been there, I swear it. You must be going out of your mind.”
“She’s fine,” she said instantly. “She’s just run off somewhere to live a better life, you know?”
Travis nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I’m sure she has.” They sat for a while as the sun started to fade.
“So this Savannah chick sounds hot,” he said. “Ugh, I can’t believe you got to have sex with a girl before I did.”
She laughed and he let her hug him.
A week later, Rosalie returned home from an evening hanging out with Savannah. Savannah had brought up Hannah’s name at least three times in the conversation. Hannah had seen Le Tigre live twice. Hannah was studying art history. Hannah had her tongue pierced.
“Hannah sounds obnoxious,” Rosalie snapped eventually and Savannah’s head shot up, opening her mouth to snap back. Then all of a sudden, she smirked instead and chucked Rosalie under her chin like she was a cat.
